From: Dominik Bathon <dbatml@...>
Date: 2006-07-18T05:03:23+09:00
Subject: Re: n00b Q: Obfuscation and locking the source

On Mon, 17 Jul 2006 20:45:55 +0200, Bill Kelly <billk@cts.com> wrote:

> From: "Danno" <dh.evolutionnext@gmail.com>
>>  James Britt wrote:
>>> Danno wrote:
>>> > I have been doing some Ruby on and off this year, so I am still a  
>>> n00b.
>>> >  My question is:
>>> >
>>> > I create a ruby file, and now I want the source protected and
>>> > unreadable, how do I go about obfuscating my ruby file so that I can
>>> > distribute it as a non-open-source application?
>>> >
>>>
>>> This was discussed on this mailing list not too long ago (and on
>>> numerous other occasions in the past).  A search of the list archives
>>> should turn up various ideas and techniques to get you started.
>>>
>>  I did, all I found were jokes about how ruby is already obfuscated, and
>> many different ways of saying 'no', and that was back in 2004. I don't
>> know if that's the answer I want to leave with.  Care to be a little
>> more helpful and point me in the right direction?
>
> Had you seen the ZenObfuscate post?
> http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/196955
>
> It's a commercial offering and does have a Known Limitations
> paragraph that's worth noting.

Have you seen Ruby2CExtension (http://ruby2cext.rubyforge.org/) ?

Obfuscation isn't its main goal but it can be used to obfuscate Ruby code  
just fine. And (judging from the ZenObfuscate announcement) it has less  
limitations than ZenObfuscate, it can for example translate itself to a C  
extension.

I hope that helps,
Dominik